Old .22 Rifles

I like .22 rifles. I like OLD .22 rifles. OK, I'm old, by many people's standards. I'm opinionated. I think a .22 rifle should look like a .22 rifle......not a duded up facsimile of a military combat weapon. My favorites are boy's rifles (not to be confused with a "Boyes", rifle), you know(?), those little, initially inexpensive, single shot .22's that were common around the turn of the century.......that's 1899 to the 20th century, ie. 1900.....up until around the 1920's. I restore them, bring them back to life. Here are a few pics my latest acquisition, a Hamilton. Originally it sold for $1.50 or so. As you see, when I get them they are a little worse for wear, but I clean them up and shoot them. BUT (to me) there is nothing better than to see a 7,8,or 9 year old child shoot a gun of THEIR size, a gun around 100 years older than they are, that they learn to hit their target with, then see their smile (grin) of satisfaction. This will be as good as new when done, as the enclosed pics show of a few others I have done. The first of these is a Stevens #14 1/2 - "Little Scout"; the second a Winchester Model 1902, before and after. Mike

I like the Winchester. I have one of them as well and its still a great little shooter.

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USMCSPEEDY, believe it or not, this last summer we set up a fund raising shoot at the local trap range. One of the games was to shoot clay targets with a .22. There were a number of .22 rifles available to shoot 5 shots for a dollar at a clay target set for a straight-away on the trap machine. That little Winchester never got set down......most anyone got was 2 out of 5, but it was fun. The little guy is old enough that it is chambered for .22 Short only. Mike

Mine is a 02A and will take up to LR ammo. I've shot many a tree rat and rabbit with it when I was younger. I've been teaching my friends 8 year old daughter how to shoot with it and she just loves it.

A couple of side comments re: the Hamilton. The stocks and forends were made by the furniture Co. next door to the Hamilton factory......from flat hardwood scrap. For a quarter you could get it with a contoured stock rather than the slab sided one. Hamilton had been making air guns, but felt that there was no future in them and sold that company. He started the Hamilton & Son Firearm Co...... and faded into history; the company he sold now makes.... 'Daisy' air rifles. Mike

Yes, I like old .22's as well. Being in Canada, many of mine are old Cooeys, some of them being boy's rifles. Also have a couple of Winchesters and Remington as well as a number of Mossbergs from 1952 or older. Just something about shooting and collecting these old rifles that appeals to me. Some of them are darn accurate too!

A couple of side comments re: the Hamilton. The stocks and forends were made by the furniture Co. next door to the Hamilton factory......from flat hardwood scrap. For a quarter you could get it with a contoured stock rather than the slab sided one. Hamilton had been making air guns, but felt that there was no future in them and sold that company. He started the Hamilton & Son Firearm Co...... and faded into history; the company he sold now makes.... 'Daisy' air rifles. Mike

Nice work gramps Mike! I got a Stevens Crackshot 26 from my great uncle when I was 12that belonged to my grandfather who had long before Passed. It fired only half the time. When I got back from Kansas (where the great uncke lived) from vacation I made a firing pin out of a drill bit. It fires every time now. It was fun to carry and shoot at that time but the barrel was atrocious. Now 50 years later I decided to have it rebarreled. After being told it wasn't worth the work it would take to do it I (not willing to take no for an answer) decided to do it myself. I bought a Cooey barrel and went ti work with a set of files. Filing the extractor channel,making the extractor, filing the dovetail for the mounting pin, making the mounting pin and reaming the chamber into the old rifling. There was already 2 dovetails for front and rear sights. It actually surprised me how well it came out. I made the sights and assembled all the parts. OOPS!! it seems I built a 2 degree cant into the sights. It actually shoots nice but there is more than enough barrel to do it again and still have a 4 inch longer barrel than the crackshot has to start with. This time I'm gonna try to get an adjustable vice for the drill press and have a makeshift Bridgeport , HA HA. By the time I was finished with the files my severely arthritic hands were useless for 10 days.